Kenya’s telco giant, Safaricom, has waived fees on its mobile money transfer service M-Pesa, for all transactions below Ksh1,000 ($10).
In a national address this past Sunday, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta urged banks and mobile money providers to consider reducing costs of transactions to encourage customers to use cashless modes of payment as part of the measures to curb the transmission of Covid-19.
In response, all M-Pesa transactions below KSh1,000 ($10) shall be free for the next 90 days.
Previously, it cost $0.15 to send $10 and below. It took $0.27 to withdraw the money from an M-Pesa agent.
Safaricom CEO, Michael Joseph, said in a statement, “This means that from tomorrow morning (Tuesday), M-Pesa users will be able to send any amount below Ksh1,000 for free over the next 90 (ninety) days.”
He added Safaricom met with Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) governor Patrick Njoroge and other industry players to discuss the evolving situation around the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. The result of this meeting was waiving the fees.
In addition to this, the CBK also approved the increase of daily M-Pesa transaction limits from the current KSh70,000 ($700) to KSh150,000 ($1,500) specifically to support small and micro business enterprises (SMEs).
Kenyans will also be able to transact up to Ksh300,000 ($3,000) up from the current limit of Ksh140,000 ($1,400) and hold up to Ksh300,000 ($3,000) in their M-Pesa wallets.
Kenya has reported 3 cases of the novel coronavirus in the last few days. 45 other individuals are being monitored.
The East African country has taken drastic steps to contain the spread of the virus; shutting schools and institutions, restricting entry into the country and encouraging workers to work from home.
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